Ghostly Interference
by phoenixtears07
Summary: One: In which Giotto is to blame for little Tsuna's unconventional first word. Two: In which some of Giotto's Guardians make a good first impression. The others…not so much.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Ghostly Interference

Pairing: None

Genre: Humor, Family

Warnings: none

Rating: K

Summary: In which Giotto is to blame for little Tsuna's unconventional first word.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or its characters.

~X~

When Tsunayoshi entered the world, he was undeniably the pride and joy of the Sawada couple. Nana constantly cooed and fussed over the little infant while Iemitsu proudly stood by her side with a huge grin on his face.

Their good friend, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, and his wife closed their sushi shop for the day to come congratulate the new parents – going so far as to sneak in some sushi along with their little six month old son. Even the Ninth and a few CEDEF members briefly appeared to get a peek at the new member of the Sawada family.

Through it all, no one noticed the shadowed figure standing in the corner of the hospital room, taking in the festive air with a soft smile and warm sunset-colored eyes.

~X~

Giotto couldn't take his eyes off of his newest descendant. Even after four hundred years, from a Mafia Boss to the wandering ghost he was now, he still couldn't quite wrap his mind around the creation of a new life.

Oh sure, he knew the mechanics of it. The whole man and a woman love each other and XXX happens and eggs get fertilized and all that and _BAM_, his wife informs him she's pregnant and proceeds to have terrifying mood swings that often end with him hiding in the corner of their shared closet in fear of her throwing the expensive kitchen knife set at him again.

But traumatizing past experiences aside, Giotto couldn't help but feel indescribable awe when staring down at a newborn infant. This tight feeling in his chest as he looked down at Tsunayoshi was reminiscent of how he felt hundreds of years ago when he gently cradled his own newborn son for the first time.

It amazed him that this little pink, wrinkly, innocent child had the potential to grow up into a magnificent leader.

Giotto may not have the ability to see into the future, but his hyper-intuition told him this child would be great one day. Whether Tsunayoshi would use that potential to protect his precious people or to harm others…

He held his gloved hand over the infant's head. "You will be strong one day, and I can only pray that you will grow up to have a welcoming heart to balance that strength. Will you have the resolve to become the Sky that embraces all?"

As he asked that, a small orange flame flickered to life on the infant's forehead.

Startled, Giotto jerked his hand away with wide eyes, afraid he had accidentally harmed the child. The tiny flame wavered a little at the sudden movement but continued to burn.

The First Vongola Boss breathed a soft sigh of relief as he studied the flame. The orange flame was somewhat dull, nowhere near the purity of Giotto's flames, but that was to be expected. Flame purity came from the strength of one's resolve.

But for Tsunayoshi's untested flame to react to his so soon after being born…

Giotto laughed in wonderment before leaning down to leave a ghostly kiss on the infant's forehead, directly over the small orange flame. He whispered a promise, an oath between two Skies. "Little one, no matter what happens or who you become, I will be here to watch over you."

With that, he stood straight again and faded away. Tsuna's flame flickered in response and vanished as well.

Not five seconds later, Iemitsu peeked into the room to check on his sleeping wife and son. Satisfied that all was well, he gently closed the door behind him.

~X~

For some reason, Tsuna could see Giotto.

The blond didn't know how or why, but the facts remained. Tsuna was able to see him.

Giotto had waved it off at first, thinking Tsuna's still developing intuition might have been picking up a few traces of his spiritual presence or something to that effect. But as the months passed, Giotto noticed the way Tsuna's eyes actually focused on him and not just his general area. If he waved his hand, Tsuna's head or eyes would follow the movement without fail. When he talked, Tsuna would pay attention. And when he reached out to poke Tsuna's hand one day, Giotto discovered that Tsuna could be worse than a leech once the baby latched onto his finger.

But through the horror of trying to pry off the surprisingly tight grip, an idea began forming in the blonde's head.

Giotto smirked mischievously down at his descendant.

~X~

Nana could barely hold back her squeals. Next to her and just as excited, Iemitsu devotedly snapped photo after photo of their son.

Tsuna grinned happily up at the trio surrounding him and tried to form syllables. "K-Ke…"

On Nana's other side, unknown to the adults, Giotto repeated the word he wanted Tsuna to say.

"…Ka…"

This time, Nana did squeal. "Did you hear him, dear? Come on, Tsu-kun, say kaa-chan!"

The camera flashed another five times.

Giotto ignored the parents and tried to coax Tsuna into saying the correct syllables.

"Ku…ra…"

The blond ghost nodded enthusiastically. "That's right, keep going. You've almost got it!"

Tsuna giggled at the adults' reactions and screamed, "Kuramu!"

Nana stopped and blinked. She turned to her shell-shocked husband. "Dear, did Tsu-kun just say clam?"

Iemitsu nodded in a rather dazed manner.

"Oh." Shrugging off the weirdness of the situation, Nana cooed at her happy son. "Does Tsu-kun want clams for dinner?" Oblivious to anything else, she began planning her trip to the market.

Iemitsu barely noticed Nana leaving the room. He didn't know where his son learned that word, but…but…surely, this was a sign. No. This _had_ to be a sign.

Looking down at his son, Iemitsu pointed at the confused boy. "Son, I've decided! When you grow up, you'll take my place as the leader of CEDEF. So, you better grow up to be strong!" He flexed his arm and patted the hard muscle. "Just like your Papa! Is it a deal?"

Tsuna had no idea what his father was talking about, but he followed the example and tried to flex his arm, too.

Iemitsu nodded sharply, his eyes suspiciously misty. "That's my boy!"

The CEDEF leader remembered about the camera still in his hand. More pictures meant more bragging rights. That in mind, he used up another roll of film. After all, he could never have enough pictures of Tsuna.

On the other side of the room, Giotto was busy making a spectacle of himself. His hard work for the past few months had finally paid off. Had any of his Guardians been around to see him now, they would probably faint from the shock of seeing their beloved Boss jumping around and cheering at the top of his lungs.

"Ha! Beat that, Secondo! My descendant's first word is clam!"

Later, Giotto would thank the Tri-ni-set that the first Guardians were elsewhere.

But for now, he grinned down at Tsuna. "Alright, what word should we try next?"


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Ghostly Interference

Pairing: None

Genre: Humor, Family

Warnings: none

Rating: K

Summary: Part Two: In which some of Giotto's Guardians make a good first impression. The others…not so much.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or its characters.

~X~

Soon after Tsuna turned five, more ghosts decided to intrude into his life.

Coincidentally, there were five ghosts that introduced themselves to him at random hours of the day and night.

~X~

Tsuna carefully placed an orange block onto the growing tower of colorful blocks. Once he was sure the tower would remain balanced if he looked away for a few seconds, he picked up a blue one and went on his tip toes to place the new block on top.

Just a little more to the right and—

"Hello."

"AHH!" The tower of blocks collapsed when Tsuna jumped at the voice behind him. He tried to spin around to face the speaker but his feet, against all odds, became tangled.

Fortunately, an arm caught him before his face met the ground in what would have been a rather painful display of clumsiness.

"My apologies. I did not mean to startle you."

Tsuna blinked and righted himself before looking up.

A strange man wearing very traditional clothes smiled genially down at him with warm eyes. "Hello, Sawada Tsunayoshi, it is a pleasure to meet you at last. My name is Asari Ugetsu."

He knew he should be alarmed at the appearance of a complete stranger in his home, a stranger who knew his name at that, but something told him this person didn't mean him any harm. Shyly, Tsuna smiled back. "Hello."

After a short silence, Tsuna invited the nice, polite man to make block towers with him. In his mind, a taller person meant a higher tower, so everything worked out in the end.

~X~

Lunchtime rolled around and Tsuna raced to the kitchen when his mother called for him. The nice man had left a little earlier, but Tsuna got the feeling he would see the man again.

After getting situated at the table with a meal before him, Tsuna dug in with gusto while his mother went to do the laundry.

"Heh. That's a good appetite you have there."

Startled, Tsuna nearly choked on a mouthful of rice. He painfully swallowed before coughing and gasping for air once the imminent danger of death by rice passed.

"Sorry. Are you alright?"

Nodding, Tsuna look through teary eyes at the man sitting across from him. The fitted clothing and the long red scarf struck Tsuna as a little odd. The man even had a bandage on his nose. "H-Hello."

The man smiled kindly. "My name's Knuckle. It's extremely nice to meet you."

Tsuna considered the stranger for a moment. This man felt safe, too. Though he got the feeling that it was unnecessary, he introduced himself anyway. "I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi and I'm five."

Knuckle chuckled. "That is an extreme age, Tsunayoshi."

Wrinkling his nose, the boy shook his head at the use of his full name. "You can call me Tsuna." He looked between his lunch and Knuckle. "Are you hungry? I'll share with you."

~X~

Tsuna shifted a little nervously. The pale-haired man had been standing in that corner for near an hour already, silent and watchful.

Unable to concentrate on his coloring, Tsuna stood up and walked over to the stranger. "Um…do you want to color with me?"

Sharp, blue eyes scrutinized him. After what felt like an eternity, the man turned his head away. "No."

Tsuna deflated a little. "Do you want to watch TV with me?"

"No."

"Do you want to play with blocks?"

"No."

"Are you hungry, mister?"

"No."

"Are you thirsty?"

"No."

"Do you want to sit down?"

"No."

"Do you want to pick a game?"

"No."

"Do you want—"

"No." The man frowned darkly at the irritating boy. "Stop asking trivial questions."

Tsuna wasn't sure what "trivial" meant, but he supposed it wasn't a good thing. "Uh, I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi. What's your name?"

Hissing out a near inaudible sigh, the man finally answered. "Alaude. Now, go away." When Tsuna didn't move, Alaude glared down at him. "What do you want?"

"Will you play with me?"

"No."

Tsuna opened his mouth to ask another question, but the darkening glare prompted him to quickly close his mouth.

"Why are you so insistent, boy?"

Tsuna tilted his head to the side and said with an understanding and conviction far beyond his years. "Because it's lonely if you're over here by yourself."

Alaude was taken aback, whether by the answer or the boy he didn't know. Sighing a little more heavily, he motioned to the television. "I'll watch if you can find a detective show."

Brightening, Tsuna ran to comply.

The first Cloud Guardian merely shook his head in resignation. He would just have to accept the fact that there was another member of that bloodline who could convince (nag) him to do things he didn't really want to do.

"Oh! I found a detective show!"

Damn it.

~X~

Unlike other children, Tsuna actually liked bath time.

He happily climbed into the half-full tub with a bright smile and spent the next few minutes splashing around in a semblance of washing himself. Afterwards, Tsuna settled down and promptly began playing with his brand new, yellow rubber ducky.

Movement caught his eye and he stopped to stare at the pretty, green lightning-like flame in the middle of the bathroom. The shape of a man formed in the colorful display before the brightness faded, leaving behind a green-haired man with a lazy expression.

"Jeez, I don't understand why the Boss is so insistent about me meeting some brat. He knows I hate chil…dren…?" The man trailed off as their eyes met.

The awkward silence was broken by a light splash as the rubber duck fell from Tsuna's suddenly numb fingers.

"AHHH!"

~X~

Tsuna hugged his little stuffed lion closer to his chest as his mother tucked him into bed.

He still hadn't completely gotten over the scare he'd had during bath time. After screaming at each other, the green haired man had disappeared in another burst of green electric flames just as Nana burst into the bathroom.

His mother just sighed and smiled at his overactive imagination before properly washing his hair, but Tsuna knew the man wasn't something he made up. Even so, he had been ushered off to bed without a word of complaint.

Knowing it was pointless to dwell on the incident, Tsuna closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep. He hoped to meet those three nice men who introduced themselves today again. Maybe they would know who that green-haired man was, too.

A red brightness cut through the hazy world between wakefulness and sleep.

Tsuna groaned a little and forced his heavy eyes to open. A glowing form stood, towering over him. He couldn't really see any specific features in the darkness, but Tsuna could just make out an odd pattern on the…thing's…face. Harsh red eyes watched him with frightening intensity.

The poor child was frozen in fear.

It wasn't until the glowing being moved that Tsuna found the ability to scream bloody murder.

~X~

Later that night, six ghosts gathered in the Sawada home's living room.

One stood proudly in the middle of the room, three were situated around the low table, one stood away from the rest against the wall, and the last was dejectedly crouched in a corner.

Giotto beamed at the present Guardians, looking for all the world like a proud parent showing off his firstborn child. "So? What do you think of my descendent?"

"Ah, Tsuna-kun is a very kind child."

"Agreed. He even offered to share his lunch with me."

"Hn."

Lampo lazily laid back and tried to forget his awkward meeting with said child. "I never liked kids to begin with."

There was silence as everyone waited for the last member to speak up, expecting some sort of praise about Tsuna. Despite his gruff demeanor and tattooed face, G had been quite popular with children (the only exception being Lampo for traumatic reasons better left in the distant past). He might snap and snarl at pretentious adults, but he was squishier than a melted marshmallow when it came to kids and their innocent, gap-toothed smiles.

Giotto cleared his throat. "G? Are you alright?"

The redhead mumbled something.

"What did you say?"

The redhead seemed to fall into a deeper depression. "He screamed when he saw me, then he hysterically told his mother that I'm the bogeyman come to brutally eat him."

"…"

Someone snickered.

Resigned to his Guardians' behavior, Giotto spent the rest of the night trying to dissuade G from shooting too many ghostly bullets at a wildly laughing Lampo while the others sat back and watched the free show.

_La Fine_

~X~

A/N:

Let's see, first things first. Sorry to any Daemon fans. I was originally going to have Deamon show up last, but it never worked out. He always came off as creepy or stalker-like. So to save Tsuna from becoming mentally scarred at such a young age, Deamon was unceremoniously kicked out. Let's just say he's off possessing innocent people somewhere far, far away from Japan. Besides, Daemon won't make a good first impression with Tsuna, canon or otherwise, so it's not a big deal…right?

Next, I'm sorry for the lack of Giotto and Tsuna interaction. Giotto just wanted to show off Tsuna to his Guardians. It just didn't work out so well for everyone.

And am I the only one who thinks that maybe G would make a great father? Giotto seems like the kind of person who'll help anyone he can and consequently get himself into a bunch of sticky situations. I can see G scolding Giotto for getting involved every time, but when something happens G will just roll his eyes before jumping in to help out Giotto. I'm pretty sure that after tagging along with Giotto for so long, being a father will be a piece of cake for him.

Sigh…poor Tsuna will probably have nightmares about a vicious red bogeyman for a while.

For anyone still reading this horribly long author's note (congratulations, I guess, for your perseverance), this is pretty much all I had for the whole Primo Family ghost theme. I wrote a skeleton of this particular oneshot right after I finished the Giotto and Tsuna one, but I didn't get around to fleshing it out until now.

A lot of people wanted a sequel type thing focusing on Giotto and Tsuna and I'm open to suggestions/ideas. I got some good ones from reviews (yes, I read them though I'm unreliable when it comes to answering them. Sorry, yet again. Really, your reviews are very appreciated. I'm just a chronic procrastinator). I might compile some ideas together and write another oneshot to finish this whole thing.

Oh, and for my "Footsteps of Time" readers who've been waiting forever and a day for an update: I'm very, very, very, very, very sorry! Some things came up after I got back home and then school started. As of right now, I haven't even started the third chapter yet. Please don't hurt me. I'll try to get to it soon, but I'm in my last Undergraduate year and it's turning out to be pretty busy.


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